Mounties Win Fourth Straight Western Mass Title

CHICOPEE, Mass. – The Mount Greylock boys soccer team went into Sunday’s Western Massachusetts Class C Championship Game with three straight wins in that tournament final and a 12-game unbeaten streak that made the Mounties the top seed in this year’s Class C field.

 

None of that was on their mind as they laced up their boots to face second-seeded Franklin Tech.

 

“Honestly, I didn’t even think about all the expectations,” Mount Greylock’s Everett Bayliss said after scoring two goals in a 5-2 win over the Eagles at Chicopee Comprehensive. “It’s another hard tournament. You’ve got to play well. One mistake, one elimination, and you’re out.

 

“I think that was our main focus the whole time.”

 

Lukas Burrow set up a pair of goals, and Liam Hnatonko, Owen KoaMaya and Keaton Repetto each scored a goal as the Mounties improved to 11-3-4 this season and grabbed a fourth-straight regional title.

 

Ward Bianchi made seven saves – all in the first half – before leaving the game with a 4-0 lead in the 63rd minute of play.

 

In the first moments of the game, Franklin Tech had a couple of prime chances to score first and put the Mounties on their heels. The biggest threat came in the third minute, when the Eagles’ Nathan Gheorghita fired a shot from distance that forced Bianchi to leap up and punch the ball over the crossbar for a Franklin Tech corner kick.

 

“Franklin Tech is a good team,” Mount Greylock coach Chris Kapiloff said. “They have good athletes. They’re coached well. I wasn’t surprised to see them have some success in the first few minutes. They have three boys who combined for like 50 goals this season.

 

“I know they did score two goals on my freshman [keeper], who I’m trying to get some minutes, but our defense did a great job containing those three scores today. … Ward making fantastic saves is not something that is new for him or for us. My heart still dropped a little bit when that boy connected with that ball. It was going to the top corner. I think with nine out of 10 goalies, we would have been losing 1-0.

 

“Thankfully, we have the one out of 10 who makes those stops regularly.”

 

Mount Greylock started to turn the tide in the seventh minute, when Kieran Johnson sent a dangerous ball from the right wing into the top of the 18 for Bayliss, who was just beaten to the ball by Franklin Tech keeper Jakob George (16 saves).

 

Moments later, the Mounties broke through when a throw-in deep in on the right wing led to Liam Hnatonko’s unassisted goal with 31 minutes, 9 seconds left in the first half.

 

The Mounties then added two goals in a four-minute span around the 15-minute mark, one from Bayliss and another from Owen KoaMaya.

 

Both were assisted by Burrow, who, like KoaMaya, came off the bench to help spark the offense, continuing a long-standing practice by Kapiloff to keep fresh legs rotating onto the field throughout the match.

 

“Come tournament time, healthy players is what you need to make a deep run,” Kapiloff said. “Also, I think that, as a coach, one of my philosophies is always bringing along the sort of ‘middle’ players. I know that lots of coaches like to work with the stars. I [believe in] working with those players who are say Nos. 5 through 15 [in the lineup] to bring them up to a level to support the goal scorers, to support the people everybody knows. That’s what gets you deep into a tournament.

 

“So, right from the beginning of the season, I had a group of six or eight guys who were constantly subbing in, constantly getting minutes on the field. Many of them have never played better than they’re playing right now.”

 

Bayliss scored his second goal in the 26th minute to give Mount Greylock a 4-0 lead going into half-time.

 

The Mounties dominated the early stages of the second half but could not find the finishing touch against George and the Eagles.

 

With time running down, Kapiloff pulled Bianchi – one of Mounties’ 11 seniors – in favor of ninth-grader Findlay Beguin.

 

Franklin Tech greeted him with a Jonathan Gheorghita goal to get within three goals with 15:17 left to play.

 

Inside of five minutes, the teams then traded goals. First, Repetto finished off the rebound of a Bayliss shot to push the margin back to five. Then, seconds later, Jonathan Gheorghita scored from midfield to cap the scoring.

 

Mount Greylock now heads to the D4 State Tournament, where, last year, the Mounties won in the play-in round before bowing out in the first round. This year, Mount Greylock started Sunday as the 18th-ranked team in the division in the latest in-season power rankings, a spot that would help them avoid the play-in and go on the road to face the 15th seed.

 

The final seeds for all the MIAA soccer tournaments are scheduled to be released on Thursday afternoon.

 

“Going forward, I think with any season and any team, our goal is to do better than last year,” Bayliss said. “So we’re taking it one game at a time. I think we’re going in and playing a higher seed, but they’re pretty close to us.

 

“So I think it will be a good game, and it will be a good test. From there, it just gets harder.”